Your Right to Know

The Ohio Supreme Court yesterday ordered Franklin County Sheriff Zach Scott reinstated to the
May 6 ballot for a Democratic Party position that pits him against county Commissioner John O’G
rady.

But a simmering feud between two factions in the party means the last salvo likely hasn’t been
fired in the dispute that began with the Franklin County Board of Elections.

“We had two Democrats and one Republican suppressing the voters’ rights,” said Scott, who wants
Secretary of State Jon Husted, a Republican, to look into election board “shenanigans.”

Republican Brad K. Sinnott and the two Democrats on the four-member board — county Democratic
Party Chairman Greg Haas and Kimberly E. Marinello — voted to keep Scott off the ballot for the
state Democratic central committee post from the 16th Senate District.

The high court’s unanimous ruling overturned the Franklin County Court of Appeals, which had
upheld the elections board.

Haas could not be reached for comment.

The elections board decided last month that Scott had just four of the necessary five valid
signatures of registered voters on his nominating petitions.

Though her cursive signature did not match her printed signature, the fifth signer testified
under oath that she signed the petition. That wasn’t enough for the elections board or the appeals
court.

But the Supreme Court justices agreed with Scott that it was “an abuse of discretion for the
board to disregard the evidence. ... Once the board was satisfied that the signature on the
petition was (Tara) Patel’s, it should have declared the signature valid and placed Scott’s name on
the ballot.”

The fight between Scott and O’Grady for the obscure position stems from a rift that dates to
2012, when party fundraiser Melissa Barnhart unsuccessfully tried to oust Chris Redfern as chairman
of the state Democratic Party. Scott and other politicians who have hired Barnhart to work on their
campaigns or in their offices have met opposition from others, including O’Grady, who backed
Redfern.

Barnhart obtained the petitions for Scott to run against John P. Gilligan — son of former Gov.
John J. Gilligan — a two-year member of the state central committee who was seeking re-election. O’G
rady, considered a stronger opponent to Scott than Gilligan, entered the race to block Scott, and
Gilligan withdrew.

Early voting started without Scott’s name on absentee ballots requested by Democrats in District
16.

Scott’s attorney, former Secretary of State Jennifer L. Brunner, asked the elections board
yesterday to resend all unreturned absentee ballots — this time with Scott’s name. As of 2:30 p.m.
yesterday, about 1,000 of more than 1,800 ballots sent out in the district had not been
returned.